One of the biggest points of confusion in the iPhone Siddur was editing your location manually. Beforehand, we asked the user to provide their zip code and GMT offset, if they were based in the US. If not, they needed to provide their GMT offset and their longitude and latitude. Besides for this causing confusion over daylight savings time, no one really knew their longitude or latitude, let alone their altitude.
Hence, version 2.0 of the location discovery tool. To access this tool, you go to Zmanim, Click on the location at the top and it opens up this "edit" screen:
You flip the auto-location feature to the off position and type in the new location. You can be very specific, like a whole address, or just a city name, it will try to find the best match:
I am heading to Boston soon, so I plugged that in and clicked on "done".
It then uses your Internet connection, yes this is the only piece of the software that absolutely requires Internet, to get the data. It calls the Yahoo Maps API to get the longitude and latitude of your search. Then, we need to get your time zone and altitude, so we use the GeoNames WebService to get that data. In short, we make three quick API calls, to two different provides, to get this data into the application, for you.
Here are the results the APIs returned for Boston, MA:
Then I clicked on "Save" and it took me back to Zmanim with the times for that location, plus it put "Boston, MA" at the top:
At the same time, it updated the Settings section, to use this location. Clicking on "About" will show you the Zmanim data points:
Pretty cool?! Yes, the times are accurate.
Not done, it also changes the Minyanim data to be based off this location.
Of course, you an always change it back to any location easily.
That is version 2.0, location manager.
Comments and question also at Google Groups.
Comments
Very nice. Any idea on a rough time frame for this? Here are a few points
1) the long/lat should probably be in the same line followed by altitude and timezone in the second. This is the natural flow.
2) Note the discrepancy between the timezone name in screens 1 and 3. The latter (America/New_York is the standard in the Olson Timezone database format.
3) Allow the optional use a map (the built in google map) to allow the user to select their location. A web service call to get elevation data and timezone can happen after the location is visually selected. Boston is pretty large and the minyan database might be many miles off your intended location. The map would help this.
4) allow saving a list of favorite locations
5) Does the date picker belong on the location screen?
6) screen #3 with the location below the text field looks confusing to me.
7) Please add the Shamash Kosher Database to the app. Please keep it in the same app instead of spinning off a new low priced app for this. I would pay more for the siddur if it had this functionality built in. I perfer a one stop Jewish app. I am fine with the tehilim and Tfila pack being distinct, but maybe it is because it is not something I am clamoring for, but I still think that the kosher databse should be in the Siddur app.
8) When auto location is turned on, please show the location name in the "edit settings" page. It shows on the zmanim page.
9) consider showing the location name on the minyan listing as well, the same way it shows in the zmanim page.
88) Please add this to the Google Groups (I am too lazy to sign up there). Thanks!
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 11:05 AM
Time frame? A guess, two weeks, maybe more - depends on Apple.
3 is a ton of work, not really necessary, don't you think? you can type in an address, or even a landmark might work.
4 is on the todo list, but not a major priority.
5, not sure :)
6, not sure what you mean.
7, (a) all tools inside the siddur are prayer specific, kosher places are not prayer specific. (b) we are waiting on shamash still, who knows how long it will be.
(8) it does
(9) okay
and 1 and 2, ill send.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 11:47 AM
#6 - See the location Boston in a small font below the "Enter location Manually" text field. It looks odd. Have it show in the text field, but in read only mode. Add a "Change Location" button next to or under it that will enable the field. The button text can change to Search once the text field is enabled. Just a suggestion, but the way you implemented it looks a drop odd.
#8 - In what version? Certainly not in 1.5
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 12:06 PM
Got it, reworking it as per your description.
also, 1 is done, 2 is fixed, 9 too hard
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 1:31 PM
By the way, how old is the godaven database in 1.5? For the locations that I am looking at it has some pretty obsolete data that does not appear on the godaven website. Does the data actually have GPS coordinates? I am at the location of my minyan (shows properly in the map application) but the minyan is listed as being 0.6 miles away. Might just be an anomaly of my GPS reception.
Would you care to elaborate technically about #9? As in all development some things that seem easy are hard and vice versa, but I am just curious. The same goes for the map issue.
Thanks
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 2:43 PM
Its not the best data, 1.8 is going to be day and night for ya. :)
No, the data did not have GPS coordinates. We used Yahoo Maps API, to plug in the address and pull a reverse geo lookup. Then we added the long/lat into the database manually and pushed out that version to the database we run.
Also, in 2.0 (not 1.8) we have added a setting to increase or decrease GPS accuracy (pros, better accuracy, cons, slower).
#9, ill try to get an answer.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 2:57 PM
Thanks.
It is nice to see a commercial project that is so open about TODO and bug lists.
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 3:03 PM
I just noticed the Add for minyanum. Is there also a delete?
Also look at the source at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustybrick/2775660016/
Any reason thsi is not just GoDaven.com that links to the correct page? The full URL is not aesthetically perfect as the rest of your app.
A screen shot of the add and edit minyan functionality would be nice.
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 3:14 PM
There is no delete, but an edit button that allows you to specify if the minyan should be deleted.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 3:16 PM
Consider adding time zone info to the zmanim info popup (image #5 above). The timezone (gmt offset) plays a big part in the calculation of zemanim.
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 3:36 PM
Will do, I should probably clean it up so it takes up less space on the screen.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 3:42 PM
The animated gif on the siddur page is out of date and should be updated. Also there is a minor html error in the link to the version page. The first of the 2 links to the version page ends with an <a> and not </a>
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 21, 2008 3:45 PM
We are waiting to update the animated version until all features are mostly complete.
Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 21, 2008 3:53 PM
Here is an issue that I ran into this AM. open iPhone at home and the GPS location is perfect. close the iphone and do not use it for a while. When you get on the road and open the maps it takes a while to get a fix (wifi turned off, so locating the location is slightly slower), since the location services do not update in the iPhone if they are not needed. The maps app clearly indicate that it is in the process of locating your location. If the siddur is opened before any app that will update the location (such as the map), the minyan list and zmanim will show the original (home) location and once the new location is found it will suddenly switch. There should be an indicator that it is working on locating the current location instead of showing a location 40 miles off and suddenly switch once the new location is zeroed in.
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 22, 2008 10:21 AM
In 1.8 and newer, will new entries in GoDaven have to wait for a new Siddur release? or will the siddur periodically update the minyan list without requiring the download of a new version? I imagine that if your interface is as easy to use as I imagine, the # of entries in GoDaven will increase quickly, but will frustrate the users if these new entries require a new Siddur release (something that will become painful for you as well once the siddur becomes stable and has fewer update releases).
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 24, 2008 12:15 PM
Yes, they will have to wait. In a future version, we hope to be able to push these updates without sending out a new version.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 24, 2008 12:37 PM
1.8 is now available.
Posted by: Sam I Am | August 24, 2008 7:48 PM
Yup, 1.8 wont have this feature, this is going in 2.0.
Posted by: Barry Schwartz | August 24, 2008 10:16 PM